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By David Pendered

A statement released by Atlanta’s airport refutes findings by an economist at Georgia State University concerning the amount of information that’s readily available about the concessions trade.

The study by Bruce Seaman found that Atlanta’s airport is less transparent than other North American airports in revealing details of its concessions business. Passengers could be affected if some quality concessionaires decide the lack of information is enough to keep them from trying to open shop at the airport, Seaman said.

The airport’s statement contends that the airport does release large amounts of information about its concessions trade, and it urges researchers and the media to accurately report available information.

By David Pendered

A statue of Brer Rabbit has been taken from its pedestal in front of the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton, the hometown of Atlanta author Joel Chandler Harris.

“Speculation, as far as motive, runs from prank to scrap-metal sale,” said Stanley Lines, a retired school librarian who resides in Eatonton and runs a lively Twitter update about his community.

But there may be a more sinister motive to the missing statue, one inspired by politics and related to the current flap involving a congressman who compared President Obama to the “Tar Baby” story, said Lain Shakespeare, the descendant of Harris who oversees the Wren’s Nest, in Southwest Atlanta.

By David Pendered

Faced with a list of road and transit projects they just don’t want to cut any deeper, local elected officials now intend to ask the state Legislature for access to possibly more sales tax dollars.

But their hopes already have been dashed. Asked for comment on the pending request, a spokeswoman for the governor said late Thursday that the Legislature will not consider it during the special session that begins Aug. 15.

Clayton County Chairman Eldrin Bell did his part to raise the heat of debate by suggesting that the proposed – and moribund – commuter rail line from Atlanta to Griffin is the victim of a state agency’s effort to protect its bus service in the area.

By David Pendered

The political theater of the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation played out Tuesday in a harbinger of things to come as the final list of projects is crafted.

The day started with a show of solidarity by the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable. The committee voted unanimously to approve what turned out to be about $715 million in sales-tax-funded road improvements in five outlying counties – Cherokee, Douglas, Henry, Fayette, and Rockdale.

The day ended with remarks from DeKalb County officials and advocates who forcefully requested the committee to add the proposed MARTA rail extension along Eastbound I-20. Construction costs of the 5.4 mile route range from about $523 million to $769 million, depending on whose estimate is used.

By David Pendered

The political optics of the region’s proposed $6.1 billion transportation improvement program begins Tuesday, as the battle over projects spills for the first time into the public arena.

DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May has called a noon press conference – complete with “elected officials and supporters” – to discuss the exclusion of any new transit project to serve south DeKalb on the tentative short list that was approved last week.

May intends to pick up where he left off last week, when he addressed the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable’s Executive Committee after it voted for a $3 billion tentative list of transit projects. May took the podium to ring the bell of equity in transit and finance:

By David Pendered

It says something about the transparency of governance at Atlanta’s airport when more information is publicly available on LinkedIn than is provided by the airport.

The Linkedin page of an airport manager says concessions generate over $336 million in annual revenue. That sort of figure may be of interest to concessionaire competitors in the city’s current effort to sign vendors for the airport’s 125 food and beverage sites and 27 retail shops.

No such total revenue figure is available – much less more detailed data – in the airport’s concessionaires’ brochures or its presentations to prospective concessionaires, according to a new study by Bruce Seaman, an economist with Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.